Prevalence of Mental Health Conditions and Disorders

This section examines the prevalence of mental health problems and conditions in Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG.

“Traditional” groupings (notably divided according to neurotic or psychotic symptoms) have been adopted. However, it is acknowledged that there is considerable debate relating to the categorisation of mental health problems and there are caveats on how well people fit into any one group or definition (comorbidity being quite common), as some people will experience both neurotic and psychotic symptoms.

Main Types of Mental Health Problems

Common Mental Health Problems/”Neurotic” relates to symptoms which are regarded as extreme forms of ‘normal’ emotional experiences such as depression, anxiety or panic. These are more frequently referred to as “common mental health problems”

Severe Mental Health Problems/”Psychotic” symptoms act to alter the perception of reality, symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions or paranoia, with the person seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling or believing things that no one else does

Organic Mental Health Problems relate to conditions that are caused directly by brain damage or due to brain malfunction, the most common of these is dementia

Common Mental Health Disorders

This section includes estimates of the number of people with common mental health problems in Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG.